The Vines: Highly Evolved

By RUSSELL BAILLIE

(Herald rating: * * * * * )

Another week, another scrappy rock'n'roll outfit with a definitive-article/ plural-noun name already making a name for themselves in Britain despite having accents and haircuts which probably get them looked at funny by Her Majesty's Customs.

The Vines' passports say they are Australian, but their taut, thrilling rock'n'roll that is prone to psychedelic divergence is from quite another place - early-60s Hamburg and Liverpool, by way of early-70s Detroit and early-90s Seattle.

There's no getting around it: the Vines can sound a lot like Nirvana and the Beatles spliced together.

But here's the thing, they do it with such verve, lack of self-consciousness and enthusiasm - with the voice and songs of frontman Craig Nicholls their greatest assets - it's hard not to be utterly sucked in.

That is even when on Factory they manage to glue the cod-reggae of Obla Di Obla Da to a spot of Cobain-ish hollering. It's weird but it may well be genius. But definitely brilliant is the strutting one-minute 34-second title track which opens Highly Evolved's perfectly economical 40 or so minutes - and its later rowdy companions Outtathaway, and Get Free.

But there's a more considered melodic side too. And while it's the rockers that make you sit up and take notice, the album's true songwriting depths are revealed in the likes of the pastoral pop of Autumn Shade, Country Yard - which oddly resembles Sleepy News by our own betchadupa, who would seem to be on a similar wavelength.

As well, the swirling, piano-plinking, Lennonesque ballad Homesick and the harmony-powered, electronically throbbing Sunshinin' show the Vines' pop finesse extends way beyond judicious use of a fuzzbox. And on the closing 1969, they manage to sound, well, like a hurricane as they hurtle headlong to its explosive finale.

A great finish to a terrific album that in its own way reminds of the surprise post-Nirvana excitement caused by the Foofighters' debut.

And given the chance, the Vines won't just grow on you, they'll take root deep in your rock'n'roll enthusiasms.

Label: Capitol